Adult magazines are displayed in a special, partially blocked-off area of a store at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. (Courtesy of Morality in Media)

Related Links

Since more people are getting their porn online, Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores will no longer carry 891 magazines including Playboy, Penthouse, American Curves and Tattoo effective Wednesday, according to American Forces Press Service.

The Internet has led to a massive decrease in the demand for print publications, as evidenced by the fact that sales of “adult sophisticate titles” at AAFES stores have plummeted 86 percent since 1998, an AFPS news story said.

“The decision to no longer stock the material is a business decision driven by the time, money and energy required to facilitate buying habits, combined with decreasing demand,” Army Lt. Col. Antwan C. Williams, an AAFES spokesman, said in the story. “Magazine sales are on a sustained downward trajectory due to the proliferation of digital delivery.”

Other titles getting whacked include the Saturday Evening Post and SpongeBob Comic, the news story said. All the shelf space that just got freed up will be given to things that people are actually buying more of, such as electronics.

The move was announced one day following the release of a letter from the Defense Department explaining that adult magazines can be sold on military installations because they do not meet the definition of indecent material under federal law.

The group Morality in the Media released the letter after lodging a complaint in June claiming that the display and sale of adult magazines violated the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996, which prohibits the sale or rental of any material at military exchanges in which “the dominant theme ... depicts or describes nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs in a lascivious way.”